Cleveland Foundation Creative Fusion Artists Begin 3-Month Residency in Ohio City

CLEVELAND, OH - International and local artists will spend the next three months living in Ohio City and collaborating to create public art pieces in the Hingetown area of the neighborhood. By the end of the year, the neighborhood should be filled with visual art pieces, a legacy of the Creative Fusion program that brought the artists together.

The public artworks, which will include photographic and painted murals and structural sculptures, will be centered along the Detroit Avenue Corridor in Ohio City, along sites chosen to maximize the overall impact for the neighborhood.

Launched in 2008, Creative Fusion is an international artist residency program that has brought more than 70 artists from around the world to Cleveland. This year, the program is evolving to pair a local artist with a visiting international artist at each of the host arts organizations. Each of the cohorts will also now share a single theme. The Fall 2016 cohort has been dubbed, “Street Art Edition.”

Six organizations will host an international artist and at least one local artist:

• Cleveland Print Room – Hosting local artist Amber Ford and Chilean artist Loreto Greve
• Cleveland Public Theatre – Hosting local artists Gary Williams and Robin Robinson and Brazilian artist Ananda Nahu
• Ingenuity Cleveland – Hosting local artist Leila Khoury and Mexican artist Luis Ituarte
• Ohio City Inc./Hingetown – Hosting local artist Glen Infante and British artist David Shillinglaw
• SPACES – Hosting local artist Ryan Jaenke and Italian/German artist Michela Picchi
• Transformer Station – Hosting local artist Donald Black Jr. and Austrian artist Rainer Prohaska

“The collaboration between each of the host organizations and the international and local artists will create a transformational legacy for Ohio City,” said Thomas McNair, executive director for Ohio City Incorporated. “The artists’ work will leverage the arts activities and investments that are already occurring along this corridor to create a more walkable environment and build meaningful connections between Lakeview Estates and the broader Ohio City neighborhood.”

On November 19, in collaboration with PNC Bank, the Creative Fusion “Street Art Edition” will culminate in a community celebration where a neighborhood tour will allow the public to see all of the artworks created by the Creative Fusion artists. A collaborative exhibition of the artist work will also be displayed in an exhibition that will open to the public on November 18 & 19 at Cleveland Collection Gallery adjacent to the mural sites.

Image via The Cleveland Foundation